UConn struggles again with Louisville's zone

William S. Paxton

Updated 12:33 am, Sunday, March 16, 2014

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- The zone has given UConn fits for years, but Ryan Boatright is not ready to anoint Louisville as the best defensive team in the country because they beat the Huskies with it three times this season.

"Their matchup zone is tough," the UConn guard said after Saturday's AAC championship loss to the Cardinals 71-61 in front of 13,554 fans at the FedEx Forum.

"They play man the entire tournament until they play us," he added. "It's probably the toughest zone we've played all year. But I can't say it's the toughest defense because they never play us man."

When the zone has worked so well, and Louisville has won nine of the last 10 meetings, why would the Cardinals want to try anything else?

Once again it was effective in frustrating the Huskies (26-8), who made nine turnovers in the opening 20 minutes.

"We try to focus on the defensive end because we know if we get a defensive stand, that's going to lead to our offensive breaks," said Louisville sophomore Montrezl Harrell, who finished with 22 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks in 39 minutes.

Louisville built a 37-22 lead at the half, closing with a 12-4 run with aid of four UConn mistakes. The Cardinals had a 9-2 edge in fast-break points in the half, 12-6 for the game.

"We kind of lost it in the first half, we didn't play so well in the first half," said UConn senior Shabazz Napier, who finished with 16 points, but was 4 for 12 from the field. "We competed in the second half, but we can't allow ourselves to give somebody, that kind of a team, that many points and expect us to win.

"They're a good team, they have some great players and they definitely have a great coach, but we can't do that anymore."

Last Saturday, the Huskies struggled to even get the ball inside against the Louisville zone and were outscored 28-20 in the paint while being unsuccessful at trying to zone bust. A week later, they started to find some success in the second half, breaking it by feeding the ball into freshman center Amida Brimah (14 points) and junior forward DeAndre Daniels (17 points).

Brimah scored eight points in the first half and was 3-for-3 with six points after the break. UConn scored 18 of its 32 paint points in the second half.

"I'm not into any moral victories but I really like how we responded in the second half," UConn coach Kevin Ollie said. "Just with the ball moving and getting Amida going ... and DeAndre started to establish himself in the 4-hole. That's how you beat the zone, you get it into the high post and you make plays.

"Passing it in there and we started making some shots. That's what we are going to need to do going forward."

The Huskies have been exposed to the zone enough, but have struggled against the more effectively played ones like those from Louisville, Stanford and SMU in particular.

In the NCAA tournament, they will likely see it again, since word is out that the Huskies have had problems with it.

"We'll be able to play with a match-zone, but you never know what's going to happen in the NCAA tournament," Ollie said. "Every coach is going to come with something new, so I thought our ball movement was actually great and we started making shots."